142 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL 



system " may be, it has at least been productive of con- 

 siderable benefit to the Javanese. 



The revenue and expenditure of Java occupies about 

 two-thirds of the Netherlands India Budget, and upon the 

 abundance or deficiency of its crops the variations in that 

 document largely depend. Apart from customs and 

 other dues the revenue is chiefly derived from coffee, the 

 opium and salt monopolies, and the rent of land. The 

 Budget for the eight years inclusive, from 1884 to 1891, 

 shows extraordinary irregularity. Thus in 1887 the 

 revenue exceeded the expenditure by £2,091,652, while 

 in 1891 there was a deficiency of £1,702,194. The 

 mean surplus for these eight years was about £75,000. 

 No surplus, however, can safely be counted upon, and 

 there is no doubt that the prosperity of Java, which was 

 formerly so great as to admit of a large and certain 

 annual contribution being made towards the revenue 

 of the mother-country, has been for many years 

 diminishing. 



11, Population. Towns. 



In January, 1890, the census gave the united popula- 

 tion of Java and Madura as 22,819,074, of which 

 233,717 were Chinese, and 13,365 "Arabs." The 

 Europeans numbered 42,364. Central and some parts 

 of Eastern Java and the island of Madura show the 

 densest population, the Sunda lands being only sparsely 

 inhabited. The mean density of the population of the 

 nine provinces of Central Java is 657 to the square mile, 

 while that of Belgium, the most thickly populated of 

 European countries, is only 530. In the province of 

 Bagelen the density reaches the astonishing figure of 964 

 to the square mile. It is said that in the year 1780 



